Binder operating machine



Sept. 16, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 50. 1955 m M L L m m K M mcNV L N v I .D L. N E O R DH RA UHA HP X T ARR P YR o C vs Sept. 16, 1958A. L. RUCK ETAL BINDER OPERATING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept.30, 1955 INVENTORS. ARTHUR L. RUCK E. DENNIS BY RICHARD C. LAYNE CORBETT- MAHONEY & M l LLEFk RALPH United States Patent ()fiice 2,851,708Patented Sept. 16, 1958 BINDER OPERATING MACHINE Arthur L. Ruck, RichardC. Layne, and Ralph E. Dennis, Columbus, Ohio Application September 30,1955, Serial No. 537,758

1 Claim. (Cl. 11--1) Our invention relates to a binder operatingmachine. It has to do, more particularly, with a machine for operating abinder of the type which is made of thermoplastic material and whichconsists of a longitudinally extending backbone of semi-circular formhaving binder rings extending from one edge thereof around intooverlapping relationship to the other edge thereof. This type of binderis commonly in use as a loose-leaf binder and is disclosed in the patentto Douvry No. 1,970,285 issued August 14, 1934. v

A binder of the type indicated is of such a nature that the ringsthereof tend to stay in operative position where the free ends of therings overlap the backbone. However, the thermoplastic material hassufiicient elasticity so that the free ends of the rings can be bentaway from the backbone to permit the assembly or removal of properlypunched loose-leaf sheets in relationship to the binder. However, inassembling or removing the sheets, it is necessary to provide a tool ormachine which will hold the backbone and spread the rings relativethereto. The present invention relates to a machine for operating abinder of this type in this manner.

There have been various binder operating machines designed for spreadingthe rings relative to the backbone. However, all of these machines withwhich we are familiar employ hooks which are inserted in the rings andare then moved in a proper direction to spread the rings. In actuatingthe hooks with these prior art machines, two distinct movements arenecessary, namely, a movement axially of the rings to insert the hooksinto the rings and a movement at right angles to the first movement sothat the hooks would engage the rings and spread them or, in otherwords, pull the free ends of the rings away from the backbone. These twodistinct movements of the hooks required complicated mechanisms toaccomplish such movements, such mechanisms usually embodying a slidemovable in one direction, a slide movable at right angles thereto andcams and lost motion connections for accomplishing such movements underthe control of a single operating handle.

It is the main object of our invention to provide a binder operatingmachine in which the ring-spreading members are moved by simplemechanism yet in which the ring-spreading members are quickly moved intothe rings and spread the rings effectively.

According to our invention, we provide a machine which is provided withbinder-supporting fingers which engage the backbone of the binder andsupport it in a fixed position. Associated with the supporting fingersand closely adjacent thereto in normal position are ringengagingfingers. These ring-engaging fingers project through guide slots whichare angularly disposed relative to the positions of the binder ringswhen the binder is supported on the machine. These guide slots, in fact,extend angularly away from the binder-supporting fingers. Thering-engaging fingers are pivotally carried by a slide or carriagedisposed on the machine and movable towards and from the supportedposition of the binder, that is,

towards and from the binder-supporting fingers. Thus, this carriage hasa simple back and forth movement. During this simple back and forthmovement the ringengaging fingers are moved by a simple continuousmovement into and out of the binder rings, being guided by the guideslots while pivoting on the slide or carriage. During the forwardmovement of the carriage the ring-engaging fingers gradually move intothe rings and engage the rings to spread them before the limit ofmovement of the carriage is reached. During the reverse movement of thecarriage the ring-engaging fingers permit the rings to return to theirinitial positions and finally move out of the rings before the extent ofreturn movement of the carriage is reached.

In the accompanying drawings we have illustrated the preferredembodiment of our invention. In these drawmgs:

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view taken through our machine alongline 11 of Figure 2.

Figure 2 is a transverse sectional view taken at right angles to that ofFigure 1 along line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a broken plan view of a portion of the machine shown inFigures 1 and 2.

Figure 4 is a detail illustrating how the ring-engaging fingers engagethe rings and spread them.

With reference to the drawings, we have illustrated our machine ascomprising a housing or casing 10 which has an upper wall 11 that isdownwardly and forwardly inclined. The general arrangement isillustrated best in Figures 1 and 2. 7

As indicated in Figures 1 and 2, towards the upper end of the upper wall11 there are provided a series of upstanding binder supporting fingers12. These fingers are spaced apart distances corresponding to the spacesbetween the rings R of the binder which is shown in Figures 3 and 4.Each upstanding finger 12, as shown in Figure 3, projects up through thespace S between adjacent rings R. They engage the backbone B of thebinder and prevent it from moving forwardly and downwardly when therings R are spread, as will be clear in the following description. Thefingers 12 are substan tially the width of the spaces S between therings R. Each finger 12 is angularly disposed relative to an integralattaching plate 13 which is suitably attached to the plate 11 on arecessed surface 14. With this arrangement, as shown in Figures 3 and 4,the binder can be slipped over a the upstanding fingers 12 so that thefingers will engage the backbone B and prevent the binder from rollingdown the Wall 11.

Thus, the binder is supported in a fixed position on the plate or upperwall 11. To open the binder for removal or insertion of loose-leaves, itis necessary to spread the rings R from the initial rearward positionindicated by the dotted lines in Figure 4 where the free ends of therings overlap the backbone B to the final forward position shown by thefull lines in Figure 4 where the free ends of the rings are widelyspaced forwardly of the backbone 13. In other words, the rings R arerolled out forwardly on the supporting plate 11. This is accomplished bythe provision of a series of pusher members indicated by the numerals 16in the drawings.

Each pusher member 16 (Figures 3 and 4) is in the form of a main armwhich has its rear or upper end pivoted at 17 to a slide or carriagemember 18 within the casing 10 directly below the upper wall 11 thereof.This carriage or slide 18 is tilted so that the arms 16 are parallel tothe plate 11. The arms 16, therefore, extend forwardly and downwardly.At the forward end of each arm 16 it is provided with an upstandingguide finger 19 which extends upwardly through an associated slot 20through the associated slot 20. The upper end of each finger 19 isprovided with a laterally directed ring-pushing element 21. The arms 16correspond in number to the rings of the binder so that a pusher element21 is provided for each ring R. The slots 20 are provided in similarnumber and are angularly disposed but are parallel with each other. Asshown in Figure 3, each slot 20 extends thelength of each space Sbetween the rings R of the expanded binder diagonally thereof. Relatingthe slots 20 to the supporting fingers 12, it will be noted that theyextend from the fingers downwardly and forwardly and angularly from oneedge of the fingers at least through the complete width of the fingers.It will be apparent that with this arrangement a simple straight-linemovement of the carriage 18 forwardly and rearwardly in the casing 10will produce an angular movement of the ring-engaging pusher elements 21since the upstanding guide fingers 19 will engage the sides of the slots20. With the binder supported as in Figures 3 and 4, this simplecontinuous angular movement, produced by forward movement of thecarriage 18, will cause the pusher elements 21 to gradually enter intothe rings R, engage the rings towards their forward sides and spread therings away from the backbone B as shown in Figure 4. Reverse slidingmovement of the carriage 18 will result in the pusher elements 21 beingmoved out of contact with the rings R and eventually out of the ringsback to their initial position where they will be just ahead of and inline with the fingers 12. Obviously, the elements 21 will be of nogreater extent laterally than the width of the binder-supporting fingers12, that is, of no greater extent than the spaces S between the rings ofthe binder so that the binder may he slipped into position on thefingers 12 or be removed therefrom.

The carriagelS (Figures 1 and 2) is slidably mounted on a pair of guiderods 29 which extend forwardly and rear-wardly within the casing 10 andare inclined so that they are parallel to the upper wall 11. These rodsare supported within the casing by the upstanding supports 30. Thecarriage is moved forwardly and rearwardly along the rods 29 by means ofa link 31 which is pivoted to the carriage at 32 and to the upper end ofa crank arm 33 at 34. This crank arm 33 is keyed to a transverseactuating shaft 35 which is rotatably mounted in bearings 37 and extendsat one end through a side wall of the casing and which has an actuatinghandle 36 keyed thereon. Obviously, a simple'swinging movement from thehandle 36 will produce forward and rearward move ment of the carriage 18parallel to the upper wall 11 of the casing. This simple back and forthmovement of the carriage 18 will result in the proper movement of thepusher elements 21 into the rings R and in engagement therewith tospread the rings and then movement out of engagement with the rings andfinally out of the rings entirely.

It will be apparent from the above description that we have provided asimple machine for spreading the binder rings of a flexible binder ofthe type indicated which includes a backbone and binder rings supportedthereby. The mechanism is extremely simple since only a straightlinemovement of the carriage, which carries the ringengaging elements, isnecessary to position these elements in the rings to engage the ringsand then spread them. This simple movement of the carriage results inthe desired movement of the ring-engaging elements because of theprovision of the angular slotsdisposed relative to the supportedposition of the binder in the manner previously described.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim is:

A machine for actuating a binder of the type which includes alongitudinally extending backbone having flexible split rings disposedin spaced relationship therealong and adapted to be spread relative tothe backbone to permit insertion or removal of punched loose-leafelements, comprising a supporting surface on which the binder is adaptedto rest, supporting fingers extending upwardly from said surface andspaced apart the width of the rings of said binder so that when thebinder is supported on said surface the fingers will extend upwardlybetween the rings ahead of said backbone, ringengaging members supporteddirectly ahead of said fingers and being of less lateral extent thansaid fingers and of the spaces between said rings, said ring-engagingmembers having guide portions disposed in guide slots in said supportingsurface, each of which extends forwardly and angularly from a point atone edge of the associated supporting finger laterally at least to apoint in alignment with the opposite edge of said finger, saidringengaging members being in the form of arms pivoted to a carriagebelow said supporting surface for lateral swinging movement, said guideportions consisting of upstanding guide fingers which extend upwardlythrough said slots, and means for moving said carriage forwardly so asto move ring-engaging members forwardly and angularly relative to saidsupporting fingers so that said members wil move into the rings of abinder supported thereby and will engage said rings at their forwardside to spread said rings forwardly relative to said backbone.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,257,714 Emmer Sept. 30, 1941 2,304,630 Emmer Dec. 8, 1942 2,334,815Emmer Nov. 23, 1943

